CHAP, xvni Wedgwood at Work again 229 



found in many cabinets abroad, amidst the most 

 splendid specimens of Sevres and Dresden porcelain. 

 Wedgwood succeeded completely in giving to hard 

 pottery the vivid colours and brilliant glaze which, 

 until that period, had been seen only upon porcelain. 

 His ware was sold at a price, too, which brought it 

 within the means of general consumption, both at home 

 and abroad." 



It may also be added that the beautiful set of Chess- 

 men, designed by Flaxman, were the first in modern 

 times executed in pottery. The author of the article 

 " Flaxman," in the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica, observes that the extreme refinements of 

 figure, outline, and modelling, which "Wedgwood aimed 

 at in his ware, were not the qualities best suited to 

 such a material ; or it might be regretted that the gifts 

 of one of the greatest figure-designers who ever lived 

 should have been employed in such a minor and half- 

 mechanical art of household decoration ; but the beauty 

 of the product it would be idle to deny, or the value of 

 the training which the sculptor by this practice acquired 

 in the delicacies, the very utmost delicacies, of modelling 

 in low relief, and on a minute scale. 



But the sculptor, in his early days, must necessarily 

 support himself and his noble wife by his earnings from 

 those who had the courage and munificence to employ 

 him. Besides, his drawings after the ancient Greeks, 

 and his practice in modelling figures for Wedgwood's 

 plaques, and his designs of playful children with which 



